Did He or Didn't He?

WARSAW, POLAND: The confusion over whether Polish Prime Minister Jozef Oleksy had resigned ended today when Oleksy formally handed in his resignation to President Aleksander Kwansniewski. Oleksy quit amid accusations that he had passed classified documents to the Soviet Union from the early 1980s to March, 1995. In a televised speech Wednesday night, Oleksy said he was going step down to clear his name. TIME's Tadeusz Kucharski reports from Warsaw: "Oleksy's resignation does not mean the communists are losing power here. In fact, it is just the opposite. A recent poll, which was not conducted by the communists, showed that they are actually gaining in popularity. The economy is working in Poland. Kwansniewski will probably take advantage of that and use the resignation as an opportunity to call for early elections, which he expects the communists to win, gaining control of parliament." Kwansniewski's Democratic Left Alliance, a party comprised of former communists, defeated incumbent president Lech Walesa in a run-off on November 19.